


A Penne For Your Thoughts

by prelude_to_midnight



Category: We Fix Space Junk (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Nightmares, Obviously this happens somewhere after A Cure for Bindweed and before The Socialite & The Cyborg, Pining, Platonic Cuddling, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-01
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:13:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24484888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prelude_to_midnight/pseuds/prelude_to_midnight
Summary: Kilner has a nightmare, Samantha tries to help.
Relationships: Kilner/Samantha Trapp
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	A Penne For Your Thoughts

Alone, Kilner stood in front of a rusting iron gate, an unfamiliar dilapidated mansion before her where vines grew tightly around it, suffocating the outside. It was the kind of house she had seen in old books from Earth, it seemed to have collapsed inwardly on itself somewhat, the roof sagged and the cedar shingles stuck up in places like rotten teeth. The windows had no glass in them now and they seemed not to be quite rectangular anymore. In the high winds the old house creaked as if in its death throes. The dark grass grew long and unkempt around it. Storm clouds brewed overhead as her hands reached for the lock. Carefully opening the creaking gate, she took a step forward. The closer she got the more she realized that it was actually bindweed crawling over the house, she picked one of the white flowers and it crumbled to dust in her hand.  
Penne’s voice rang through her ears, calling her closer down the cracked cobblestone path. The ancient door hung on rusted hinges, and Kilner pushed it open gently and stepped inside. The interior was just as rotting as the outside. Centuries of dust covered every inch of furniture. Bindweed curled around the banisters and poked through the rotting planks of wood in the floor.  
Kilner followed a particular trail of twisting vines to the living room. On a torn overstuffed chair was a forest green astronaut’s suit, flatly sprawled and torn to near shreds. The broken helmet with its cracked visor sat on the floor.

“Penne?” She quietly asked herself.

Without warning the bindweed crawled to life, curling towards the space suit, bringing it to life. As it filled, Kilner fell over in fear as she watched the creeping plant stand up and pick up the helmet and put it over the place where a head ought to have been.

“Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” Penne’s voice echoed around her.

“I-I couldn’t,” She stammered. “You were too far gone.”

“Kilner.” The suit moved sloppily, like a marionette poorly puppeteered. “You lied to me.”

She scrambled back, trying to get away; finding herself in the corner of the room, unable to escape. More voices began to mix with the repetition of her name, she was certain it was Jault’s, she was certain it was Andrea’s, she was certain it was her parents, she was certain it was Samantha’s. The guilt sat in her heart, anchoring her in her place, cementing her in the past.

“Kilner…” Penne’s voice crawled its way into her ears and coursed through the rest of her body, closing in on her. “Kilner…”

 _“Kilner.”_ Samantha’s voice said firmly.

She opened her eyes wide, hastily getting up and banging her head against the top of her bunked chamber bed. “Bruce wept…” She mumbled, rubbing the top of her head.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Samantha.” She assured, though she let what sounded like sniffling escape.

“Are you sure?” Leaning down from her top bed chamber, the brown roots of Samantha’s hair fading down to blond fell in front of her. “I could hear you like, mumbling or something.”

“I’m fine. Just go back to sleep.”

Still half asleep, Samantha clambered down from her bed and stumbled once she reached the floor. She leaned down to where Kilner was laying, propped up by her arm. “Then why are you crying?”

"I am not-" Kilner swallowed the lump in her throat, wiping away the tears that had escaped her a bit more aggressively than was warranted. In her frustration she had used her cyborg arm, her tears seeped into the systems, sending a shock. Her body jerked in response, and Samantha took a step back, her brows furrowed in worry.

“Should I get Dax out of sleep mode?”

“No, don’t bother. He needs to sleep just as much as we do,” shaking her head, she recalibrated her arm, touching each metal finger to her thumb and twisting her wrist on its connector. “Speaking of which, get back to sleep. I promise I’m fine.”

“Kilner, you had a nightmare.” Samantha placed a fist on her hip and pointed a thumb to the side. “I know when I used to have a nightmare my nanny would make me a cup of tea.” She looked off to the side with a sneer and mumbled. “Or Fabio would…”

“Well, I didn’t grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth.”

Samantha let out a huff. “I’m just trying to say that a cup of tea might do you some good, you know, it’s comforting.”

Ignoring Kilner’s protests and insistence that she was fine, the socialite turned around and pressed the glowing blue button on the wall next to the horizontal doors of The Yellow Submarine. The doors hissed open and Samantha stepped down the dimly lit halls into the kitchen where she rummaged around for a kettle. Finding a sterling silver kettle with the Automnicon logo etched onto the side, she rolled her eyes and poured a bottle of Automnicon brand water into it, setting it to boil. As she searched through the cupboards trying to find where Kilner had put the tea she had bought from a merchant on Hyspero. Once she had found it she turned to the refrigerator for a midnight snack.  
“Why are you awake this late?”

 _“Dear Bruce,”_ Samantha gasped, pressing a hand to her chest and stumbling back. “Dax, what-?”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Is this a rogue AI thing? Did RINGO escape somehow and put you in the fridge again?” She asked, her voice wavering in a building panic.

“No, no,” Dax assured. “It’s only me, I am completely in control.”

“Okay, good.” She leaned against the counter.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

At that, the kettle began to whistle loudly. Samantha poured the scorching water into a gold rimmed tea cup she had from her original set of luggage, letting the tea seep. “Kilner had a nightmare and I’m trying to comfort her.”

“Oh,” He said in surprise. “Do you know what it was about?”

“Nope.”

“That’s Kilner for you. Never says a word, doesn’t want to have anyone concerned about her.”

Samantha sighed. “I know you’ve been with her longer, but I think I’ve been here long enough to know that as well.” She picked up the tea cup and asked Dax to wish her luck as she returned to her and Kilner’s shared bedroom.

Elbowing the entrance button and stepping into the room, she found Kilner on her side, mumbling to herself. Setting the tea on a small table next to Kilner’s lower bed, she knelt next to her. She quietly said her name, placing a hand on her arm. In response, Kilner jerked away, grumbling for Samantha to just go back to bed.  
She took up the tea again and in a sing-songy voice said she made her tea. Her cyborg companion turned over, rubbing her one still human eye.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know.” Kilner said, sitting up and taking the cup from her hands.

“I didn’t have to do a lot of things.” Samantha said, standing up. “I could have listened to you and gone back to sleep, but I didn’t. And would you like to know why?”

She sighed, rolling her eyes. “Why?”

Samantha leaned down to face her. “Because I care about you. You would have done the same for me.” She said, nudging her. “Now scoot over.”

In a short and frankly silly scuffle that Samantha won, Kilner found herself pressed into the farther side of her bed closest to the wall where shelves of small books and intergalactic knickknacks were built into it. The socialite could not help but smile when she noticed a small holograph disc emitting the image of Pluto.  
Kilner drank her tea in silence, finding comfort in the gesture. She absently leaned her head on Samantha’s shoulder for only a second before picking it up again and apologizing.

“You don’t have to tell me what happened,” she said, taking the now empty cup, she set it aside and curled her arm around Kilner's metal one. “But just know I’m here for you.”

Kilner stared ahead of her, feeling Samantha rest her head on her shoulder. Though she did not respond, she found her to be so comforting. She swore to herself she would never harm Samantha in any way, never treat her the way she treated Andrea or Jault. The cyborg had never known anyone to always have the right motivations, even when she was wrong. There was a sort of purity to her, naivety perhaps, but at that moment Samantha Trapp was the only person who ever mattered to her in the entirety of the universe.


End file.
